There were not one, not two, not three, but four chicks feeding together at the wrack line at day break this morning. The mystery chick appears to be about the same age as our brood, exhibiting all the same habits although it is not a Piping Plover fledgling. I think it is a Semipalmated Plover fledgling.

The chick was sopping, soaking wet and very disheveled, but feeding as vigorously as our family, finding Good Harbor Beach ants, beetles, mollusks, and sea worms to be excellent breakfast fare.

When Papa Plover voiced danger warnings, the little visitor listened as attentively as did our brood of three. At one point Papa ran towards him, I thought to scare him away, but Papa was really after the Bachelor and kept on charging.

How could such a little fledgling fly from their northern breeding grounds at such an early age I wonder. He was so drenched, he appeared to have “washed” ashore, not flown. Semipalmated Plovers breed as far south as Newfoundland so perhaps he only traveled across the Gulf of Maine.

Evocative light at daybreak this morning